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As a novice I'm quite keen to have a go at home-brewing. Obviously a key benefit would be cheaper beer for personal consumption. However I wouldn't like to end up as a sad garage drinker surrounded by dozens of bottle of 'exceptional ale'. I would rather prefer to disseminate the said product to any, and all and sundry - whether as gifts, by barter or even by taking filthy lucre. So I assume the Irish Revenue already has in place complicated regulations and fiendishly high levels of licensing and taxation - all designed to maintain the stranglehold on the Irish beer/pub business by the Stout boys. Can anyone point me in the right direction - revenue web sites, own experience, etc so I can work out the financials? I'd be much obliged.

As far as I know, once you start to take cash you need a publicans license, or at least a license for off premises sales.
You can swap, but it's probably a grey area, best to just make it for yourself, or check out the setting up a brewery thread, it's expensive and complicated and unless you have a ball of money at your disposal it's unlikely that a bank would forward the necessary bond in this time of recession.

Keep it for yourself and friends and family and swap what you can, but I'd forget the commercial side of things unless you are really wanting to get serious about it.

There is a strange part of the law that states you can sell larger quantities of beer. Can't remember if this means you need a license or not, but if you use the Search feature you will find a few threads about this very topic.

Also there would be the small matter of duty on said product once you sell it

First of all, I would like to say that I am a layman, so nothing I say can be relied upon in any way. If you want to get the official word, please contact customs and excise: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.revenue.ie/en/contact/index.html">www.revenue.ie/en/contact/index.html

Having said that, my understanding is that you will need a licence of some kind to sell alcohol of any kind. If you are a producer, in this case of beer, you can get a manufacturers licence, which allows you to sell wholesale quantities only. In order to sell it in retail quantities, you would need a beer retailer "Off" or "On" licence, as appropriate, or a full pub or off sales licence.

There are various hoops you have to jump through and costs associated with the acquisition of each licence, but it boils down to a lot of money and hassle, so you had better be planing on a profitable business, not just a hobby.

&amp;quot;BarryC&amp;quot;:2qo8jy4m wrote: There is a strange part of the law that states you can sell larger quantities of beer[/quote:2qo8jy4m]Yes, that's mentioned in this thread[/url:2qo8jy4m]. You still need a brewer's licence, which means having a premises. And, as drinkstore points out, you'll have to pay duty and VAT on whatever you sell.

Welcome to the site, zaragozo. Our collected wisdom (for want of a better word) on commerical brewing is in this thread[/url:2qo8jy4m].

Strictly speaking, home-brewed beer is only for domestic consumption, though as long as you're not taking cash for it, or dealing in large quantities, I doubt the Revenue would be too bothered. But I'm not a lawyer.